666 
wood tree to one of the few remaining regions of 
the earth where noble scenery is still unvulgarised 
and good shikar still unspoiled. 
As a geographical expression, Zambezia is a 
little vague, but it appears from the companion 
map to include the Zambezi delta and the entire 
basin of the Zambezi system in the last five hun- 
dred miles of that great river’s course. This 
country is said to contain every variety of climate 
and every beauty of African landscape. With the 
touch of a magician the author reveals tropical 
lowlands where vast seas of prairie, studded with 
islands of jungle, end in oceans of swamp and 
billowy sedge, the citadel of the water-birds—a 
very Nephelococcygia. Then up country he shows 
us the blue Zambezi, with many a feathery islet 
NATURE 
5 
[AuGusT 27, 
I9Q14 
of the reed and fen to the coney that dwells among 
the rocks; if it be game, he has plenty of good 
stories to tell, in time and season, of its pursuit; 
and if it be an animal that can be made a pet of 
he can impart amusing information as to its 
manners and behaviour, good and bad. He also 
writes sensibly about game-reserves, tolerantly 
about the camera-sportsman, and with becoming 
scorn about the biltong-butcher. He has some- 
thing to say about the tsetse-fly problem, and 
regards with unmeasured disapproval the bar- 
barous proposals of those who think to settle it 
offhand by wholesale slaughter of game. It is to 
be wished that he could tell us something of the flv 
itself—whether we are, or are not, justified in 
assuming that an insect that produces a limited 
(Crocodile. 
on her broad bosom, flowing through grassy 
plains and tranquil park-like expanses that lead 
into the forest primeval—gloomy shades made 
almost impenetrable by tangled creeper and thorny 
undergrowth, but breaking here and there into 
green pastures where the spongy soil is thickly 
printed with heart-thrilling spoor. Beyond the 
tropical jungle we pass to more temperately ver- 
dant hills, where cedar and bracken and the music 
of the waters call to mind the pine-woods of Scot- 
land; and thence to rugged heights and clattered 
slopes and stark granite peaks that almost rival 
the Alps in grandeur and inspiration. 
Of the fauna of this delightful land the author 
writes with discernment tempered with humour. 
He considers each species separately, in all its 
ways and bearings, from behemoth in the covert 
NO. 2330, VOr.93|| 
From ‘‘ Wild Game in Zambezia.! 
number of young, and nourishes them in her 
womb, must always carefully deposit them in some 
chosen habitat at that most critical period in their 
post-embryonic development when they become 
independent of her. 
Since he writes so methodically and _ scienti- 
fically of what he really knows, it is a pity that he 
sometimes wanders into the misty regions of 
pseudo-science, as when he discourses about the 
ancestry of the elephant, or gravely explains that 
since the horn of the rhinoceros consists of agglu- 
tinated hairs it has nothing in common with other 
horn. 
The chapter on rifles and ammunition, tents, and 
all manner of equipment, camp regulations, etc., 
is full of most useful detail. But the list of stores 
required by two persons for a trip of two months 
